Some Noteworthy Pictures in the Last Week

 Uh, hey guys? I could use some more water.

 Ah, thanks.

Father/Son Home Improvement
Tim's Grunt

 Does my hat go like this? I CAN'T REMEMBER!

 A Man, A Boy, and a Ball

 He doesn't like to eat little pieces of banana anymore.  He's a big boy now.  Heck, he can probably peel his own!

Heehee.  Now that's a happy boy!

Photoshopaholic

So I've been playing with Photoshop... 

Tommy, where's your helmet??? 

Now I know what you're thinking.  That's impossible.  When Jajuan played for Purdue, Tommy was a tiny, tiny, little infant not a giant, basketball-dunking toddler...

Like I said, the fun is just beginning. 

Meeting Baby Elizabeth

Tommy and I got to meet my friend Ashley's baby, Elizabeth, for the first time on Saturday morning.  I also got to see some other friends, one that I haven't seen since I was pregnant. 

 Aww! It's almost half of the 118 Fowler girls! (You might remember Holly from this post from our babymoon. Haven't seen her in forever!) I love how Tommy is pointing at Elizabeth like he's telling Ashley's mom, "Make sure you get the baby in the picture!"

 Here's a close up of little Elizabeth.  Aww! Such a cutie!

Tommy was cashed by the end of it all.  We only stayed a couple hours but he was exhausted! He was fairly well behaved for being in a non-toddler proofed house.  He didn't send a ceramic tea set crashing to the floor (It was perfectly eye level! I couldn't believe he didn't want to mess with it!).  He did want to poke Elizabeth in the eyes (what is it with kids wanting to poke babies in the eyes?) so I had to stay on him.  But he was quite the good boy! Yay Tommy!

It was so fantastic to see all those girls and catch up.  I hope we get to do that even more now that I'm closer.  Oh and I have to post this outtake from the group picture session.  This picture seriously cracks me up.  I'll let you figure out why. 

The answer to your question is: No idea! ;-)

Godmother and Godson

 Traci came over on Friday night to visit her godson. 

Tommy LOVED it! He was showing off all his toys, running around, and playing peek a boo.  He was having a great time!

I love this picture.  Look at his face! So excited!

Thanks for visiting Traci! Both Tommy and I had a great time! We need to do it again! :-)

Clifford the Big Red AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

There was a note sent home from daycare saying Clifford the Big Red Dog was coming to visit and read a story.  Tommy loves dogs so I was looking forward to hearing about this.  Tommy's teacher sent me pictures from the big event.

 Apparently it did not go very well. Turns out, a giant red furry dog is horrifying.

Here's a lovely picture of his entire class screaming in terror.  Why do we think it's funny or cute to subject our kids to this sort of thing? Do you know how many screaming Santa pictures I've seen? I don't get it.

Maybe it's character building or something.  His teacher said they really enjoyed the story at least.  ;-)

Happy Valentine's Day!

From King Thomas!
I've been experimenting with Photoshop lately.  I finally figured out how to layer.  So I 'layered' a heart diaper and a crown on the little man.  The fun is just beginning! :)

Tommy did all kinds of fun Valentine art projects that he brought home.  I thought one in particular had a cute message. 

Since you may not be able to read this, it basically says that although he may get his hand prints everywhere, his hands will only be that small for a short period.  The hand prints on the picture are so that we can remember when his hands were that small. 
Awww.... oh sorry.  I'm not crying.  My eyes are just a little sweaty today. 

(I haven't actually watched an episode of Flight of the Conchords but I've seen lots of youtube videos of their songs.) 

But stellar job on the glitter Tommy T!

Want to see a flashback of what Tommy looked like a year ago on Valentine's Day? 

 He's changed just a little bit. :-)

Yes, this is the header in color.  Yes, he's wearing Christmas pajamas.  It was a double holiday celebration!

HAPPY VALENChristmasTINE'S DAY, EVERYBODY!

Daycare Update

So how is Tommy doing at daycare?  Well I think he's having a BALL.  (Har har har)

Tommy's teacher brought in an inflatable pool and filled it with plastic balls.  It's his very own ball pit! He HATED it at first. But all the sudden this week, he decided he loved it. 


Fun!

Also, the cook for the daycare sent home a note with Tommy asking what kinds of things we were feeding him at snack time.  I sent a note back and listed all the snacks we've been feeding him.  It's mostly cereals (Chex, Cheerios, Kix) and Rold Gold pretzels.  I also listed a couple specific brands of bread we can feed him because the soy content is 2% or less.  I told her we were giving him toast with almond butter on it.  The following week they had set up a "Tommy Shelf" where all his special food is.  They made a special "Tommy's Mix" which is a special Chex Mix with no peanuts.  Just chex, pretzels, and honey nut cheerios.  They also bought almond butter! How great are they?

They told Andrew all about his special foods when he picked him up today.  Andrew thanked them and told them they didn't have to go to all that trouble.  Miss A (the cook) said, "We just couldn't stand to see his poor little face broken out."  Awww.  We feel so bad that he has to have special treatment but it's nice that they're willing.  Now he just needs to grow out of it.  You can do it, Tommy!

14 MONTHS!

The little man is 14 months old.  Wow.  So what's he up to these days?

Discipline/Testing Limits

Well he's definitely a toddler... and a stinker.  He's just in the beginning stages of testing our limits.  He loves to stand on his rocking chair. We tell him over and over again to sit down please.  He does.  But then he gets right back up and stands up again. Stinker!  And we know, this is just the beginning.  He's also starting the independence thing where he wants to do everything himself.  I wanted to sweep up the mess he made at lunch and he grabbed the broom from me so that he could do it.


This is not a bad thing.  Maybe we can put this kid to work! :-)

He is also starting to throw fits.  Oh joy.  If we tell him to do something and he knows he's not supposed to, he will plop his bottom down and scream.  Fun.

Repeating a Favorite Word

He is on a kick where he's repeating his favorite word 'dada', constantly.  It's actually embarrassing when we go out in public because anyone that walks by will get called dada.  Men, women, children... they are all dada.  Even Tommy is dada.  We show him a picture of himself and he says, "DADA!"  I know he understands that I'm mama and that he's Tommy but I think he's just on a dada kick.  That's what I keep telling myself anyway. :)

Righty or Lefty? 

It's still too early to tell obviously but he's definitely a right handed eater and a left handed thrower.

Watch out! That's another habit I'm trying to get him to break.  He will stand less than a foot away from you and just peg the ball at your face.


How much does he understand? 


We are amazed at how much he understands.  My hairbrush was laying on the floor of the bathroom and he picked up and starting brushing his hair.  What? When did he pick that up? We better watch ourselves! No more cussing. :-)

 But look what he did to his hair! Now where did he pick up how to style it into a mowhawk! Ok I'm kidding. That was me.  But look at how LONG his hair has gotten!

 He shows us more and more of his personality every day. He LOVES to give hugs and disgustingly sloppy wet open mouth kisses.  He also loves to dance whenever he hears music.  He will do a squatting dance and a wiggle dance.  Videos to come of course.  

 He still loves throwing balls.

 He's quite stylish too.  What a stud.

 What a silly boy! Always entertaining!

Happy 14 Months, Thomasaurus!

Tommy Likes The 'Sauce

Look at that face!  He certainly knows how to entertain!

YEAH TOAST!

So he is allergic to soy and there is soy in pretty much every bread in the grocery store (But why?? I don't understand).  Andrew combed every label and found a bread with the soy in the "less than 2% of" category.  Guess what his favorite new food is??

 HE LOVES TOAST!  Cut it into pizza slices and top it with almond butter and it's super tasty after school snack!

But watch the sippy! That almond butter sticks to things.

SuperBowl Par-tay!

Wait, there was a Superbowl? Is that why we had a party? Well anyway, Andrew dressed Tommy that day.  He dressed him in red for the Patriots.  He was rooting for the Pats because he made a $10 bet with a guy at work.  I hope you paid the man, Drewfus.  :-) Anyway, a red outfit means bring out those red squeakers! 

Once the Superbowl finally started, Tommy was ready to go to bed... still in red.  (I said. Are you well-fed?  How's your head? Ok I'm done.) 

But then he saw my phone.

Look who learned how to take pictures!

He actually took this one of my bro.  I'm impressed, Thomas!

The Neals were there.  Look how big Harper is getting!

Tommy continued to shoot hoops during the game.  He's more of a basketball guy.

Wyatt shot some hoops too!

Harper did not.  She's more of a football girl. She kept her eye on the game.

Heehee! Wyatt is having a good time!

Looks like all the kids had a good time.  I think every single toy is out of that toy box.

Congrats Indy on a fantastic Superbowl!

New Favorite Game

Clean up! Clean up! Everybody clean up!

Tommy's favorite new game is to take towels out of the towel drawer and throw them on the floor.  His second favorite new game is putting all those towels back in the drawer.  It is quite a scene to watch.  It would be WAAYYY too long for a video so enjoy this .gif instead.

Go Tommy Go! Wouldn't it be nice if we could convince him to do this with his toys? :-)

FaceTiming Dudes

Whenever Andrew has to go out of town for work, we try to FaceTime with him if he has WiFi in his hotel.  Tommy is starting to understand now that if Dada is not home, he will probably show up on my phone.

It's Dada! Isn't technology amazing?

Anytime my phone rings, he runs to look at it and says Uh oh! or Dada! Now he gets excited.  I caught this reaction on video. 



Andrew's WiFi was not working very well so it kept cutting off but Tommy's reaction was awesome. 

Bath Time is So Much Fun

Someone realized it's possible to start undressing himself before his bath.  Hasn't quite figured out the velcro yet.

Tough Luck

So after Tommy was in the hospital, I stayed home with him on Tuesday.  It was a nice day outside so I decided to take Tommy out for some fresh air.  I walked out the back door and turned around to go back in because I wanted to get a different hat for Tommy.  I immediately realized I had locked myself out of the house (and I panicked).

Now the first thing most people say when I tell them this story is "Well we usually keep a copy of a key under the mat or something."  Well that's nice but it didn't help me at this date and time. But don't worry.  It is NOTED.

So I'm locked out on a fairly cold day IN MY PAJAMAS.  I haven't had a shower.  I didn't have my phone on me.  I walked from door to door carrying a bundled up baby trying to find a neighbor that was home.  At the third house, I finally found a nice couple that was home.  They let me in and let me use their phone.  I called Andrew.  He was in Bloomington.  I told him I would try calling my dad.  I called my dad and he was actually just on his way out the door to come down to Lafayette because my mom had made some food for us.

Tommy and I hung out at the neighbor's house for about an hour.  They have a 9 year old grandchild so they haven't had to have their house toddler-proofed for quite awhile.  Tommy definitely took advantage.  He was into EVERYTHING!  Right before my dad called, he had pushed over one of their potted plants and it broke, spilling dirt and water all over their wood floor.

Then my dad called.  He had easily gotten the lock open with a basic tool without causing any damage, thank goodness! MY FATHER, THE HERO! (Just like Gérard Depardieu except without all the crazy hi-jinks)
Phew, crisis solved.

THEN Thursday after we had taken Tommy to the allergist, I was minding my business on my way to work.  I was turning left off of a busy state road when all the sudden my car was flying across the road! I was rear-ended at an angle and my head hit the driver's side window.  I pull to a stop and get out and this young woman jumps out of her giant Dodge pickup truck and says, "My parents are going to kill me!"  I said, "Huh?"  She said, "Do you see that car over there in the ditch?"  It was about 30 feet away.  She said, "That's my car. I just slid off the road last night and I was coming to check on it."  Two wrecks in less than 12 hours! Are you kidding me? I actually felt sorry for the girl who just hit me at that point.  I called 911 and the officer that showed up was wonderfully nice and helpful.  My car was still drivable luckily so I was still able to drive the rest of the way to work. 

My poor, poor 'Nox.

 You wouldn't think that was $3500 worth of a damage but it is!

Check out my fly rental! Picture me rollin', eh??

So yeah, bad things usually come in threes.  I thought we'd be done! But then Tommy got sick this morning... Read on...  (Are we done yet? I think so.)

Tommy's Been Talking to Little Peggy Ann McKay

So Tommy threw up 3 times this morning from 2 am to 5 am.

Hey Break? The Thornburgs are trying to catch you!!! We're waiting!

Anyway, he went back to sleep at 5 and got up at 8 in a pretty good mood.  I had already told work and daycare that neither of us were coming.  After 8, he ate some rice chex, bananas, pears and never vomited again.  He was the happiest of happy campers.  What... the....??


Does this look like a sick child to you?


You have to see the expression on his face in this video.  Watch out, Grover!! :)

I'm starting to think he was playing hooky.  What's up with that? He just wanted to stay home with Mommy today.  :-)